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Saturday, December 17, 2011
People Hate Kindle Fire So Much They're Buying Millions of Them [Kindle Fire]
New Google+ features power up Hangouts
Google+ announced several new features for Hangouts Wednesday.
By Craig Kanalley
Social Media Editor, NBC News
"Hangouts" have been described as the "killer app" of Google+ since the social networking site debuted last summer.
In September, a series of new features were rolled out, making Hangouts even more robust, including screen-sharing, "On Air" to broadcast to more than 10 people and Hangouts for mobile.
Wednesday, in a blog post, Google announced a series of new features and they all center around Hangouts. While "On Air" is still in testing with select accounts, like The Muppets, it will be expanded to more public figures. Google hinted that the feature could be available to all in the future.
Here are other Hangout features that were announced:
- Ability to launch a Hangout from any post at any time; basically, turning the comments section into a real-time video chat.
- "On Air" integration with YouTube; when you go "off air," the full-length recording of the Hangout goes to your YouTube account (private by default).
- Phone integration so you can call anybody into a Hangout; free calls to U.S. and Canada.
- A list of active Hangouts in the right-hand side of your stream.
- Notifications to your mobile device when you are invited to a Hangout.
- Virtual antlers for anyone in a Hangout ? available this month, in the spirit of the holidays.
Googlers shared the news excitedly to their accounts. VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra posted about the new features with the hashtag #seasonforshipping. Community Manager Natalie Villalobos introduced the changes by saying, "Just Another Morning at Google+ HQ."
From their posts, word of the new features quickly got around the Google+ network. Gundotra's post was shared 482 times (see how it spread here).
Google+ power users applauded the news. Serial entrepreneur Tom Rolfson said, "More proof the Google+ team is listening and adding requested features." Business consultant Alex Grossman added, "Good to see Hangouts getting more attention."
Tech evangelist Robert Scoble called the new features "major," adding: "Looks like we'll soon be able to broadcast hangouts and record them, too. I hear these will come to a small set of users first, then spread to the rest of us. As soon as I get these features I'll use them a LOT. Good stuff!"
Read more about the new Google+ features here.
Follow Craig on Twitter, subscribe to his Facebook posts, or circle him on Google+.
Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/14/9449704-new-google-features-power-up-hangouts
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Doctor: Blues singer Etta James terminally ill (omg!)
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) ? "At Last" and "Tell Mama" blues singer Etta James, whose health has been fading in recent years, is now terminally ill, and her live-in doctor is asking for prayers.
Dr. Elaine James, who isn't related to the 73-year-old entertainer, tells the Riverside Press-Enterprise (http://bit.ly/tVMtaN ) that the singer's chronic leukemia was declared incurable two weeks ago.
The doctor has cared for Etta James at the singer's Riverside, Calif., area home since March 2010.
Elaine James says she's spreading word of the singer's ailments so people will pray for her. She says fans know Etta James has been sick "but not how sick."
Court records in the singer's probate case show she also suffers from dementia and kidney failure.
Elaine James made her comments outside a Riverside conservatorship hearing over the singer's $1 million estate. The singer's son, Donto James, wants a conservator rather than the singer's husband, Artis Mills.
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Tanning Booths Increase Risk of Most Common Skin Cancer
Risk Is Even Greater for Women, Study Shows
Dec. 14, 2011 -- Indoor tanning has been under heavy fire the last few years, and a new study will do nothing to tone down the assault.
Indoor tanners are close to 70% more likely to develop the most common type of skin cancer before their 40th birthday, a new study shows.
The skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma, looks like open sores, red patches, pink growths, or shiny bumps. This type of skin cancer is usually not lethal but can be disfiguring.
Many previous studies have linked indoor tanning to melanoma, a potentially fatal form of skin cancer. Growing numbers of people younger than 40 -- especially women -- have developed basal cell skin cancer ?in recent years. The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, suggest that indoor tanning may play a role in this increase. As many as 28 million people use indoor tanning beds each year, according to the Indoor Tanning Association.
?
Study: Risk Greatest Among Women
Researchers analyzed data from the Yale Study of Skin Health in Young People. It included more than 750 people under 40. Of these, slightly more than 69% were women.
Overall, people who had used indoor tanning beds were 69% more likely to develop basal cell skin cancer before age 40 when compared to people who did not.
The risk was greatest among women, the study showed. Women who tanned were more than twice as likely to develop basal cell skin cancer as those who never tanned.
Exactly why the effects of indoor tanning seem to be worse in women is not known. Women may start tanning earlier and tan more frequently than men, the study authors write. About 43% of basal cell skin cancers occurring at an early age in women could be prevented if there were a ban on indoor tanning beds, they point out.
Other factors that increased risk in the presence of indoor tanning were:
- History of more than one basal cell skin cancer
- History of a sunburn particularly at the site of the cancer
- Use of high-speed, high-intensity, or high-pressure tanning beds
- Genetic predisposition to skin cancer
?
Indoor Tanning Is a Public Health Issue
?It is hard for even the most skeptical and resolute tanners -- and tanning salon owners -- to refute or ignore an increased risk of 69%,? says Heidi Waldorf, MD. She is a dermatologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. ?The fact that the link was strongest in women and that we see so many younger women going to indoor tanning salons is particularly concerning. This really is a public health issue.??
The rest of the country should follow California?s lead and ban teenagers under 18 from indoor tanning, she says:??We keep kids from buying alcohol and cigarettes; it makes sense to block another easily avoidable cancer risk until they are old enough to make a more informed decision.?
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Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tool detects patterns hidden in vast data sets
ScienceDaily (Dec. 15, 2011) ? Researchers from the Broad Institute and Harvard University have developed a tool that can tackle large data sets in a way that no other software program can. Part of a suite of statistical tools called MINE, it can tease out multiple patterns hidden in health information from around the globe, statistics amassed from a season of major league baseball, data on the changing bacterial landscape of the gut, and much more.
The researchers report their findings in a paper appearing in the December 16 issue of the journal Science.
From Facebook to physics to the global economy, the world is filled with data sets that could take a person hundreds of years to analyze by eye. Sophisticated computer programs can search these data sets with great speed, but fall short when researchers attempt to even-handedly detect different kinds of patterns in large data collections.
"There are massive data sets that we want to explore, and within them, there may be many relationships that we want to understand," said Broad Institute associate member Pardis Sabeti, senior author of the paper and an assistant professor at the Center for Systems Biology at Harvard University. "The human eye is the best way to find these relationships, but these data sets are so vast that we can't do that. This toolkit gives us a way of mining the data to look for relationships."
The researchers tested their analytical toolkit on several large data sets, including one provided by Harvard colleague Peter Turnbaugh who is interested in the trillions of microorganisms that live in the gut. Working with Turnbaugh, the research team harnessed MINE to make more than 22 million comparisons and narrowed in on a few hundred patterns of interest that had not been observed before.
"The goal of this statistic is to take data with a lot of different dimensions and many possible correlations and pick out the top ones," said Michael Mitzenmacher, a senior author of the paper and professor of computer science at Harvard University. "We view this as an exploration tool -- it can find patterns and rank them in an equitable way."
One of the tool's greatest strengths is that it can detect a wide range of patterns and characterize them according to a number of different parameters a researcher might be interested in. Other statistical tools work well for searching for a specific pattern in a large data set, but cannot score and compare different kinds of possible relationships. MINE, which stands for Maximal Information-based Nonparametric Exploration, is able to analyze a broad spectrum of patterns.
"Standard methods will see one pattern as signal and others as noise," said David Reshef, a co-first author of the paper who is currently a graduate student in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program and also worked on this project as a graduate student in the department of statistics at the University of Oxford. "There can potentially be a variety of different types of relationships in a given data set. What's exciting about our method is that it looks for any type of clear structure within the data, attempting to find all of them."
Not only does MINE attempt to identify any pattern within the data, but it also attempts to do so with an eye toward capturing different types of patterns equally well. "This ability to search for patterns in an equitable way offers tremendous exploratory potential in terms of searching for patterns without having to know ahead of time what to search for," said David Reshef.
MINE is especially powerful in exploring data sets with relationships that may harbor more than one important pattern. As a proof of concept, the researchers applied MINE to social, economic, health, and political data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners. When they compared the relationship between household income and female obesity, they found two contrasting trends in the data. Many countries follow a parabolic rate, with obesity rates rising with income but peaking and tapering off after income reaches a certain level. But in the Pacific Islands, where female obesity is a sign of status, countries follow a steep trend, with the rate of obesity climbing as income increases.
"Many data sets will contain these types of complicated relationships that are guided by multiple drivers," said Sabeti. MINE is able to identify these. "This greatly extends our capability to find interesting relationships in data."
Researchers can use MINE to generate new ideas and connections that no one has thought to look for before.
"Our tool is a hypothesis generator," said Yakir Reshef, a co-first author of the paper and a Fulbright scholar at the Weizmann Institute of Science. "The standard paradigm is hypothesis-driven science, where you come up with a hypothesis based on your personal observations. But by exploring the data, you get ideas for hypotheses that would never have occurred to you otherwise."
In addition to testing the ability of the suite of tools to detect patterns in biological and health data, the researchers examined data collected from the 2008 baseball season.
"One question that we thought would be particularly interesting would be to see what things were most strongly associated with salary," said David Reshef. The researchers generated a list of relationships, finding that the strongest associations with salary were hits, total bases, and an aggregate statistic that reflects how many runs a player generated for a team. "Given the stakes, baseball is so well documented. We're curious to see what can be done in this realm with tools like MINE."
Researchers from many different fields, including systems biology, computer science, statistics, and mathematics, all contributed to this project. "People are getting better at combining data from different sources, and in some ways, this project is in the spirit of that," said Yakir Reshef. "The project brought together authors from many disciplines. It symbolizes the kind of collaborations that we hope people will use this for in the future."
Other authors who contributed to this work include Hilary Finucane, Sharon Grossman, Gilean McVean, and Eric Lander. Funding for this work was provided by the Packard Foundation, Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission, National Science Foundation, European Research Council, and the National Institutes of Health.
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Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Reshef, DN et al. Detecting novel associations in large data sets. Science, Dec 15, 2011 DOI: 10.1126/Science1205438
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111215141611.htm
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Get $1,005 Worth of Mac Apps for $90 with These Two Great Mac Bundles [Bundles]
The $40 Productive Mac Bundle offers a lot that we like, with eight apps averaging $5 each. For starters, the overpriced menubar calendar Fantastical is included. You also get Circus Ponies Notebook, which is great option for anyone who needs to take and organize their notes, Tags, which will let you tag your files and folders for easier searching, BusyCal, which will give you a very feature-rich calendar, and much more.
The $50 MacUpdate Bundle offers 12 apps for an average price of about $4.17 each. It includes the very handy TechTool Pro 6 for diagnosing your sick Mac's problems, the Finder-enhancing and feature-adding TotalFinder, the system-wide audio improving Hear, one of our favorite mail apps Postbox 3, an enormous royalty-free font pack, and plenty more.
Both bundles are still a good deal even if you're only interested in a couple of apps. If you're not sure you want to buy, they're available for a little longer than the next two weeks so you have some time to decide.
The Productive Mac Bundle ($40) and the MacUpdate Bundle ($50)
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Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Republican presidential candidates on the issues
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Here's where the 2012 Republican presidential candidates stand on a selection of issues.
They are Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah Gov. John Huntsman, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.
ABORTION:
Bachmann: Backed efforts to declare the unborn "persons" under the Constitution, the most direct challenge to the Supreme Court's affirmation of abortion rights. Signed pledge to advance only anti-abortion appointees for relevant administration jobs, cut off federal dollars for clinics that perform or finance abortions, and support a ban on abortions after the fetus reaches a certain stage in development. Introduced bill to require pregnant women to see and hear the fetal heartbeat before having an abortion. Promoted other anti-abortion bills, including some that contained exceptions for rape, incest or the life of a mother. Sought to put abortion restrictions into Minnesota's constitution while in state Legislature.
Gingrich: Signed anti-abortion pledge. "Principles to protect life" platform calls for conservative judges and no subsidies for abortion but not for constitutional abortion ban.
Huntsman: Signed abortion restrictions into law as governor, favors constitutional abortion ban.
Paul: Says federal government should have no authority either to legalize or ban abortion. Yet signed pledge to advance only anti-abortion appointees for relevant administration jobs, cut off federal dollars for clinics that perform or finance abortions, and support a ban on abortions after the fetus reaches a certain stage in development.
Perry: Now supports constitutional abortion ban after saying states should decide their own laws on such issues. Backed Texas law that attempts to discourage abortions by making doctors describe the fetus' size limbs and organs to the woman, and make available an image of the fetus and the sound of its heartbeat to her, before she can have the procedure.
Romney: Opposes abortion rights. Previously supported them. Says state law should guide abortion rights, and Roe v. Wade should be reversed by a future Supreme Court. But says Roe vs. Wade is law of the land until that happens and should not be challenged by federal legislation seeking to overturn abortion rights affirmed by that court decision. Would not sign pledge to advance only anti-abortion appointees for relevant administration jobs, cut off federal dollars for clinics that perform or finance abortions, and support a ban on abortions after the fetus reaches a certain stage in development. "So I would live within the law, within the Constitution as I understand it, without creating a constitutional crisis. But I do believe Roe v. Wade should be reversed to allow states to make that decision."
Santorum: Favors constitutional abortion ban and opposes abortion even in cases of rape because "I would absolutely stand and say that one violence is enough." Previously supported right to abortion in cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
___
DEBT:
Bachmann: Opposed the agreement worked out by Congress and the White House to raise the debt ceiling and avoid a default. Said U.S. could have paid only the interest on debt while working out a plan to cut spending more deeply.
Gingrich: As House speaker in mid-1990s, engineered passage of a seven-year balanced-budget plan. It was vetoed by President Bill Clinton but helped form a bipartisan balanced budget two years later. Supports constitutional balanced budget amendment. Said that without a balanced budget, the U.S. had no choice but to raise its debt limit in the deal that avoided a default.
Huntsman: Only candidate to endorse the deal that averted a default on U.S. debt payments, "a positive step toward cutting our nation's crippling debt."
Paul: Would eviscerate federal government, slashing nearly half its spending, shut five Cabinet-level agencies, end spending on existing conflicts and on foreign aid.
Perry: Was non-committal on the deal that avoided default and raised debt ceiling. Proposes to cap federal spending at 18 percent of gross domestic product, down from about 25 percent today, but no specifics on major spending cuts other than raising retirement age for Social Security and Medicare benefits for future retirees. Favors constitutional balanced-budget amendment. "No more bailouts." Freeze size and salaries of federal civilian work force until budget is balanced. Press Congress to cut lawmakers' and president's pay by half.
Romney: Defended 2008 bailout of financial institutions as a necessary step to avoid the system's collapse, criticized the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler and said any such aid should not single out specific companies. Cap federal spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product, down from today's recession-swollen 25 percent. Stayed silent on the debt-ceiling deal during its negotiation, only announcing his opposition to the final agreement shortly before lawmakers cast their votes. Instead, endorsed GOP "cut, cap and balance" bill that had no chance of enactment. Favors constitutional balanced budget amendment. Proposes 10 percent cut in federal workforce, elimination of $1.6 billion in Amtrak subsidies and cuts of $600 million in support for the public arts and broadcasting.
Santorum: Opposed the financial-industry bailout and stimulus programs of the Bush and Obama administrations. Supports constitutional balanced budget amendment.
___
ECONOMY:
Bachmann: Voted for $192 billion in stimulus spending in July 2009; voted against two earlier stimulus packages totaling nearly $900 billion and against housing aid and auto-industry aid. Opposed extension of jobless benefits. "Government overregulation is the single biggest jobs killer." Repeal the financial-industry regulations enacted in response to the subprime housing crisis.
Gingrich: Repeal the 2010 financial industry and consumer protection regulations that followed the Wall Street meltdown, and repeal the 2002 regulations enacted in response to the Enron and other corporate and accounting scandals. Restrict the Fed's power to set interest rates artificially low. Make work training a condition of unemployment insurance and have states run it.
Huntsman: End corporate subsidies, cut regulations, lower taxes, spur jobs through energy development, seek repeal of President Barack Obama's health care law. Break up megabanks as a hedge against future bailouts of the industry.
Paul: Return to the gold standard, eliminate the Federal Reserve, let gold and silver be used as legal tender, eliminate most federal regulations.
Perry: Spur economy by repealing rafts of regulations, Obama's health care law and the law (Dodd-Frank) toughening financial-industry regulations after the meltdown in that sector. Create jobs in energy sector by removing obstacles to drilling and production. Cut corporate taxes.
Romney: Lower taxes, less regulation, balanced budget, more trade deals to spur growth. Replace jobless benefits with unemployment savings accounts. Proposes repeal of the law (Dodd-Frank) toughening financial-industry regulations after the meltdown in that sector. Proposes changing, but not repealing, the (Sarbanes-Oxley) law tightening accounting regulations in response to corporate scandals, to ease the accountability burden on smaller businesses. "We don't want to tell the world that Republicans are against all regulation. No, regulation is necessary to make a free market work. But it has to be updated and modern."
Santorum: Spur jobs by eliminating corporate taxes for manufacturers, drill for more oil and gas, and slash regulations. "Repeal every regulation the Obama administration has put in place that's over $100 million. Repeal them all. You may have to replace a few, but let's repeal them all because they are all antagonistic to businesses, particularly in the manufacturing sector."
___
EDUCATION:
Bachmann: Wants to abolish Education Department, which she calls unconstitutional. Says federal government doesn't have a role in education; jurisdiction is with state and local governments. Tried to pull Minnesota out of No Child Left Behind law.
Gingrich: "Dramatically shrink the federal Department of Education, get rid of virtually all of its regulations." But supported Obama administration's $4 billion Race to the Top grant competition for states, which encourages compliance with national education standards, because it also promotes charter schools.
Huntsman: "No Child Left Behind hasn't worked for this country. It ought to be done away with." Favors more school choice.
Paul: Abolish the Education Department and end the federal role in education.
Perry: Turned down federal education aid to Texas worth up to $700 million because he saw it as imposing national standards on Texas schools. Says No Child Left Behind law gave Washington too much power to interfere with local government.
Romney: Supported the federal accountability standards of No Child Left Behind law. In 2007, said he was wrong earlier in his career when he wanted the Education Department shut because he came to see the value of the federal government in "holding down the interests of the teachers' unions" and putting kids and parents first.
Santorum: Voted for No Child Left Behind law. Wants "significantly" smaller Education Department but not its elimination. Criticized early childhood education programs as an attempt by government to "indoctrinate your children."
___
ENERGY:
Bachmann: Reduce regulatory impediments to drilling. Voted to open the outer continental shelf to oil drilling. Voted against tax breaks for renewable energy and conservation.
Gingrich: Let oil and natural gas industries drill offshore reserves now blocked from development, end restrictions on Western oil shale development. In Alaska alone, "We could liberate an area the size of Texas for minerals and other development."
Huntsman: Used tax credits to promote clean energy in Utah but says he has learned that "subsidies don't work and that we can no longer afford them." Favors phasing out all energy subsidies and cutting regulatory obstacles to drilling and production. Says nation's fuel distribution network should be subject to Federal Trade Commission and Senate Judiciary Committee review because it gives oil an unfair advantage over natural gas. "We need to break oil's monopoly as a transportation fuel, and create a truly level playing field for competing fuels."
Paul: Remove restrictions on drilling, coal and nuclear power, eliminate gasoline tax, provide tax credits for alternative fuel technology.
Perry: Proposes authorizing more development on federal lands and slashing regulations to spur drilling in restricted areas and open off-limits waters and lands to production, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Southern Atlantic and Alaskan outer continental shelves. Opposes federal restrictions on natural gas production, including environmentally risky fracturing techniques and horizontal drilling.
Romney: Accelerate drilling permits in areas where exploration has already been approved for developers with good safety records. Supports drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic and Pacific outer continental shelves, Western lands, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore Alaska; and supports exploitation of shale oil deposits. Reduce obstacles to coal, natural gas and nuclear energy development. Says green power has yet to become viable.
Santorum: Favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and scaling back "oppressive regulation" hindering drilling elsewhere.
___
ENVIRONMENT:
Bachmann: Open federal lands to economic activity by "repealing radical environmental laws that kill access to natural resources." Voted to bar Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases. Opposes cap and trade.
Gingrich: Convert EPA into an "environmental solutions agency" devoted to scientific research and "more energy, more jobs and a better environment simultaneously." Supported tougher environmental regulation early in congressional career.
Huntsman: End the EPA's "regulatory reign of terror." Acknowledges the scientific evidence that humans contribute to global warming. As governor, supported regional cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urged Congress to cap them. "I will break down barriers to the continued, safe use of fracking," an environmentally risky technique for extracting natural gas.
Paul: In 2008, said "human activity probably does play a role" in global warming and part of the solution should be to stop subsidizing the oil industry and let prices rise until the free market turns to alternate energy sources. Now calls the science on manmade global warming a "hoax." Says emission standards should be set by states or regions, not Washington.
Perry: Manmade global warming is a "scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question." Proposes repeal of EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases and elimination of all EPA programs to restrict carbon dioxide emissions. Opposes restrictions on coal industry under the Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
Says environmental regulation and conservation are best achieved at state level and EPA should be converted to a "research and advisory" agency with no enforcement powers except when states ask for federal arbitration of regional disputes. As governor, cut money for clean air programs, cut the budget for Texas' environmental watchdog by a third and sued EPA to avoid enforcing clean air laws. Signed law that requires Texas to consider the effect of new regulations on the economy before passing them. Supports environmentally risky techniques for extracting natural gas.
Romney: Spending a fortune to cut the emissions linked to global warming "is not the right course for us." Has acknowledged the scientific consensus that humans contribute to global warming: "I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that." But now says: "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet." Proposes to remove carbon dioxide from list of pollutants controlled by Clean Air Act, and amend clean water and air laws to ensure the cost of complying with regulations is balanced against environmental benefit. Says cap and trade would "rocket energy prices."
Santorum: The science establishing human activity as a likely contributor to global warming is "patently absurd" and "junk science."
___
GAY MARRIAGE:
Bachmann: Supports constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Says federal law trumps state law on the issue but she "would not be going into the states to overturn their state law."
Gingrich: If the Defense of Marriage Act fails, "you have no choice except a constitutional amendment" to ban gay marriage. Under the act, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriage and no state is forced to recognize a same-sex marriage validated by another state.
Huntsman: Supports same-sex civil unions, with many of the rights of marriage, and says states should decide their own policies.
Paul: Says decisions on legalizing or prohibiting should be left to states. Supports federal law allowing one state to refuse to recognize the same-sex marriages of another state.
Perry: Now supports constitutional ban on gay marriage after saying states should choose their own courses.
Romney: Favors constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, says policy should be set federally, not by states. "Marriage is not an activity that goes on within the walls of a state."
Santorum: Supports constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, not leaving decision to states. "We can't have 50 marriage laws." ''Abraham Lincoln said the states do not have the right to do wrong. I respect the 10th Amendment, but we are a nation that has values. We are a nation that was built on a moral enterprise, and states don't have the right to tramp over those because of the 10th Amendment."
___
HEALTH CARE:
Bachmann: Promises to seek repeal of Obama's health care law. Favors limits on medical lawsuits as a way to control health care costs. Voted against expanding Children's Health Insurance Program and against regulating tobacco as a drug.
Gingrich: Repeal Obama's health care law if Republicans win congressional majorities. Prohibit insurers from cancelling or charging discriminatory rate increases to those who become sick while insured, which is an element of Obama's law. Offer the choice of a "generous" tax credit to help people buy health insurance or the ability to deduct part of the cost from taxes, another feature similar to the existing law. Limit medical lawsuits to restrain health care costs and let people in one state buy policies in another. "Block-grant Medicaid and send it back to the states." Previously supported proposals that people be required to carry health insurance.
Huntsman: "Let the states experiment." Says government should "absolutely not" require anyone to have health insurance, although he once said a mandate would be necessary for any comprehensive change to succeed. Open to restricting Medicare benefits for the wealthy. Seek repeal of Obama's health care law.
Paul: Opposes compulsory insurance and all government subsidies for health coverage. Favors letting people deduct full cost of their health coverage and care from taxes. Says doctors should then feel an obligation to treat the needy for free.
Perry: Repeal Obama health care law. Raise eligibility age for Medicare benefits, limit benefits for the wealthy and give people the choice of receiving federal aid to help purchase their own insurance instead of getting the direct benefits of the current system. Proposes turning Medicaid over to the states with no-strings federal support. Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people in the nation. Signed a law that would allow Texas ? subject to federal approval ? to band together with other states and take over the role of providing health care coverage for the elderly, the poor and the disabled.
Romney: Promises to work for the repeal of the federal health care law modeled largely after his universal health care achievement in Massachusetts because he says states, not Washington, should drive policy on the uninsured. Proposes to guarantee that people who are "continuously covered" for a certain period be protected against losing insurance if they get sick, leave their job and need another policy.
Would expand individual tax-advantaged medical savings accounts and let the savings be used for insurance premiums as well as personal medical costs. Would let insurance be sold across state lines to expand options, and restrict malpractice awards to restrain health care costs. Introduce "generous" but undetermined subsidies to help future retirees buy private insurance instead of going on traditional Medicare.
No federal requirement for people to have health insurance. His Massachusetts plan requires people to have coverage, penalizes those who don't, and penalizes businesses of a certain size if they do not provide coverage to workers. His state has highest percentage of insured in nation. On Medicaid, proposes to convert program to a federal block grant administered by states
Santorum: Would seek to starve Obama's health care law of money needed to implement it. Supported Bush administration's prescription drug program for the elderly.
___
IMMIGRATION:
Bachmann: Favors fence all along the 1,900-mile U.S.-Mexico border, not just the 650 miles built at a cost of $2.6 billion. Opposes government benefits for illegal immigrants and their children.
Gingrich: In contrast to most rivals, supports giving legal status to illegal immigrants who have sunk roots in the U.S. and lived otherwise lawfully. "If you've been here 25 years and you got three kids and two grandkids, you've been paying taxes and obeying the law, you belong to a local church, I don't think we're going to separate you from your family, uproot you forcefully and kick you out." Supports path to citizenship for illegal immigrants' children who perform U.S. military service. Make English the official language. Divert more Homeland Security assets to fighting illegal immigration at Mexican border.
Huntsman: Unrealistic to deport all illegal immigrants. Says a fence is probably a necessary step to securing the border even though "the thought of a fence to some extent repulses me, because it is not consistent with the image that we projected to the rest of the world." In Utah, threatened to veto a bill to repeal cheaper in-state college tuition rates for children of illegal immigrants.
Paul: Do "whatever it takes" to secure the border, end the right to citizenship of U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, no social services for illegal immigrants, aggressive deportation of those who overstay a visa or otherwise break U.S. law.
Perry: Opposes complete U.S.-Mexico border fence, which he calls "idiocy," instead wants more border agents. Supports continued U.S. citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants can get in-state tuition at Texas universities if they meet other residency requirements. Neither employers nor state agencies required to run job applicants through a federal database to determine their legal status. Illegal immigrants have access to services for drug treatment, mental health and children with special health care needs.
Romney: Favors complete U.S.-Mexico border fence, opposes education benefits to illegal immigrants. Proposes more visas for holders of advanced degrees in math, science and engineering who have U.S. job offers, and would award permanent residency to foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools with a degree in those fields.
Santorum: Supports complete border fence, opposes letting children of illegal immigrants qualify for cheaper in-state tuition and says federal government should not require states to offer any social services to illegal immigrants. Favors making English the official language.
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SOCIAL SECURITY:
Bachmann: Keep Social Security for older workers and "wean everybody else off." Says it is "very likely" that the age for retirement benefits will have to go up for new workers.
Gingrich: Give younger workers the option of diverting Social Security taxes to private retirement accounts.
Huntsman: Open to raising the retirement age to qualify for full benefits and to restricting benefits for the wealthy.
Paul: Says younger workers should be able to opt out of Social Security taxes and retirement benefits.
Perry: Proposes raising retirement age for full benefits and restricting increases in benefits for the wealthy. Previously branded Social Security a "disease" inflicted by Franklin Roosevelt, now says system should be saved for future generations while younger workers are given the option of building private accounts instead of paying taxes into the entitlement.
Romney: Says raising the age for benefits and reducing inflation adjustments for rich retirees are among options that should be considered.
Santorum: Supports option of private retirement accounts instead of Social Security taxes and benefits for younger workers.
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TAXES:
Bachmann: Eliminate estate tax. Tax holiday followed by low tax rate, 5 percent, for U.S. companies operating overseas that repatriate their profits. Voted against a temporary cut in payroll tax pushed by Obama.
Gingrich: Cut corporate tax to 12.5 percent from maximum 35 percent, eliminate capital gains and estate taxes, let companies write off all new equipment in one year. For personal taxes, let people choose whether to file under the current system or pay a 15 percent tax, preserving the mortgage interest and charitable deductions. Supported extending payroll tax cut.
Huntsman: Favors lower income tax rates coupled with the elimination of deductions and loopholes. Cut corporate tax to 25 percent from a maximum 35 percent, and phase out all subsidies.
Paul: Eliminate the federal income tax and the IRS. Meantime would vote for a national sales tax, supports certain excise taxes and certain tariffs. Favors massive spending cuts to defund close to half the government and eliminate the need to replace the income tax at all. Supported payroll tax cut.
Perry: Let taxpayers choose between current system and 20 percent flat tax on income. Under the flat-tax option, mortgage interest and charitable contributions would continue to be deductible. For each individual or dependent, $12,500 in income would be exempt. Flat-tax plan would eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, inheritances, dividends and long-term capital gains. Also proposes to cut corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent.
Romney: No one with adjusted gross income under $200,000 should be taxed on interest, dividends or capital gains. Cut corporate tax rate to 25 percent from a high of 35 percent. Opposes proposals to replace current tax system with national sales tax because he says it raises taxes on middle class while lowering them for rich and poor. Make Bush-era tax cuts, including for the wealthy, permanent. Eliminate estate tax. Dodged on extending cut in payroll tax, saying he doesn't like "temporary little Band-Aids" but also he's not for raising taxes "anywhere."
Santorum: Proposes zero corporate tax. "If you manufacture in America, you aren't going to pay any taxes." Opposes any national sales tax.
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TERRORISM:
Bachmann: Expand Guantanamo, no Miranda or constitutional rights for foreign terrorist suspects. "I would be willing to use waterboarding," now banned, in interrogations.
Gingrich: Supports extending and strengthening investigative powers of Patriot Act. Supports continued use of Guantanamo Bay detention for suspected terrorists. Supported creation of Homeland Security apparatus, because "we need some capacity to respond to massive events." In 2009, said of waterboarding: "It's not something we should do."
Huntsman: Said Homeland Security Department has been heavy-handed, conveying a "fortress security mentality that is not American." Says on interrogations: "We should not torture. Waterboarding is torture."
Paul: Opposes the surveillance and search powers of the Patriot Act. Says terrorists would not be motivated to attack America if the U.S. ended its military presence abroad. "The Patriot Act is unpatriotic because it undermines our liberty." Says: "Waterboarding is torture. And it's illegal under international law and under our law. It's also immoral. And it's also very impractical. There's no evidence that you really get reliable evidence."
Perry: Said it was "unprincipled" for Republicans to vote for creation of the Homeland Security Department. Supports continued use of Guantanamo Bay detention for suspected terrorists and extension of Patriot Act. Would seek to privatize Transportation Security Administration and decertify its unions. Said U.S. interrogators should "use any technique that they can" short of torture, which he did not define.
Romney: No constitutional rights for foreign terrorism suspects. In 2007, refused to rule out use of waterboarding to interrogate terrorist suspects. In 2011, his campaign says he does not consider waterboarding to be torture.
Santorum: Defends creation of Homeland Security Department as an attempt to fix a "complete mess" in the domestic security apparatus. Voted to reauthorize Patriot Act. Says airport screeners should employ profiling; "Muslims would be someone you'd look at, absolutely." Supports continued use of Guantanamo Bay detention for suspected terrorists. Says waterboarding has proved effective.
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WAR:
Bachmann: "Defense spending did not cause our budget crisis and we must maintain our military strength." Opposed U.S. intervention in Libya, saying the effort might be helping terrorists there. Called Afghanistan a war "we must and can win" provided generals have sufficient troops and money.
Gingrich: Initially criticized Obama for not intervening in Libya, then did an about-face after the president had sent in U.S. war planes to support the rebels fighting the government. "I would not have used American and European forces." No cuts in defense spending except waste. Supported Iraq war and opposed early timetables for withdrawal. Praised Obama's decision to bolster troops in Afghanistan two years ago; noncommittal this year on when and how they should withdraw, but opposes "precipitous" pullout.
Huntsman: Proposes scaling back U.S. involvement in international conflicts and, in contrast with most rivals, says Pentagon budget should be cut. Opposes U.S. military assistance of new Libyan government. Opposed U.S. military intervention in Libya absent congressional approval. Says no more than 15,000 U.S. troops should be left in Afghanistan. Says to end nation building abroad "when this nation needs to be built."
Paul: Bring all or nearly all troops home, from Afghanistan and other foreign posts, "as quick as the ships could get there." Opposed U.S. intervention in Libya. "We've been fighting wars since World War II, technically in an unconstitutional fashion." Cut Pentagon budget.
Perry: Criticized Obama for announcing withdrawal of troops from Iraq by end of this year and from Afghanistan next year but has not said how many troops should remain or for how long.
Romney: Has not specified the troop numbers behind his pledge to ensure the "force level necessary to secure our gains and complete our mission successfully" in Afghanistan. "This is not time for America to cut and run." Said Obama was wrong to begin reducing troop levels as soon as he did. Would increase strength of armed forces, including number of troops and warships.
Santorum: Said in September 2011 that 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops should remain in Iraq. Says U.S. troops should withdraw from Afghanistan "a little slower" than Obama is planning. "When we engage in Iraq and Afghanistan, we engage because we want to be successful. We want victory." In May, accused Obama of creating a "morass" because he let the international community take the lead in Libya. Opposes closure of U.S. bases abroad. "We have to have the ability to confront those threats from around the world, which means we need basing around the world."
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Associated Press writers Brian Bakst and Chris Tomlinson contributed to this report.
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